Design and Preclinical Evaluation of Gastroretentive Floating Tablets of Quetiapine Fumerate

Abstract

The present study was focused on gastro-retentive tablets of quetiapine fumarate using hydrophilic polymers HPMC K250 PH PRM, HPMC K750 PH PRM and HPMC K1500 PH PRM as release retarding agents. WSR 301 was chosen as resin, sodium bicarbonate was used as effervescent agents. FTIR studies revealed that there is no interaction between the drug and polymers used for the formulation. The tablets were prepared by direct compression method and the release rate was found to decrease with proportional increase in the ratio of polymer to drug. Quetiapine fumarate is absorbed well from stomach and therefore is a very good drug to be formulated into gastro retentive floating dosage form. In-vitro release profile of quetiapine fumarate and marketed product when compared, the optimized formulation F19 showed drug release of 98.65% within 24 h whereas 96.78% of the drug was released from the marketed product within 1h. The optimized formulation remained stable when subjected to accelerated stability studies. In vivo radiographic studies of quetiapine fumarate optimized formulation (F19) supported the expectations in prolonging the gastric residence time in the fasted state in beagle dogs. Cmax and AUC values of optimized formulation were found to be significantly higher than of marketed product. In conclusion, gastro-retention can be a promising approach to enhance bioavailability of quetiapine fumarate with narrow absorption window in upper GIT.